NCRI Iran News | Terrorism and Fundamentalism
Iran Regime's IRGC Is Training Fighters in Syria
- Sunday, 26 February 2017 21:47
It has been reported through Iranian regime’s media outlets that Iran is using Syria as a battleground to train military officers.
The Imam Hossein University in Tehran which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed that military leadership students have been sent to Syria to train.
Iran claims that its forces are there to protect a holy site in Damascus – the Zeinab Shrine. However, since the beginning of the Syrian war, Iran has provided extensive support to the government with its fighters and militia all over the country – far from the shrine it is supposedly there to protect.
Around 100 students have gone to learn in Syria. The IRGC commander in charge of the university’s “brass hat division” said: “Some of the students sent for two-month training sessions got martyred (killed), many were injured and some have been deployed in Syria for a longer period.”
This is the first time since the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s that Iran’s military men can train on the frontline.
A commander for the IRGC commented that the forces have “gained technical and tactical advancements, militarily and (…) intelligence collection” by spending time on the Syrian frontline.
Syria rebel fighters have also commented on the presence of Iranian military students which are concentrated near Aleppo, but also in Homs and Damascus. A leader of a rebel force said that reinforcements have been sent to Syria, “mainly new officers and students from its military academy”.
Experts believe that Iran’s presence in Syria is allowing Tehran to increase its capability of planning and carrying out more terrorist operations as they are gaining on-site and real-life experiences during their training.
The Institute for the Study of War points out that the fighters are learning new methods from Russian military, for example, “cauldron battles, multiple simultaneous and successive operations, and frontal aviation”. It indicated that this is going to make Iran a force to be reckoned with in the Middle East “in relatively short order” and it will be a game changer for security and the balance of power there.
Iran is quickly becoming a real threat to the United States and its allies in the region.
